A wide variety of plants have been utilized in various dwelling, workplace, and entertainment environments to beautify and enrich the appearance of the area. A great variety of plant species have been used through the years in such areas which vary in the extent of care and attention required by the plants to maintain their strong healthy and enjoyable appearance. In many instances, such plants are located in environments which render them easy to maintain and care for. However, often such plants are utilized in environments or situations which render their attention and care difficult and/or sporadic. For example, such plant enhancements are frequently located in areas which are difficult to access such as upper portions of rooms or building exteriors. Similarly, such plants are also frequently used within the dwelling places of persons travelling a great deal and therefore absent for prolonged periods of time.
The need to maintain the care and feeding of such plants under such difficult situations has prompted practitioners in the art to devise a number of devices which in varying degrees are intended to provide for the needs and care of such plants with little or no attention.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,261,125 issued to Arkebauer sets forth a motion controlling system for plants which utilizes a wooden block as sensing means for the control and operation of the watering system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,498 issued to Herrli sets forth a plant watering system which utilizes a porous elongated wick to communicate water to the plant soil from the reservoir by capillary action of the wick.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,399 issued to Treirat sets forth a plant watering system utilizing a capillary material in combination with a porous wick to control soil moisture.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,904 issued to Peters sets forth a double-walled plant supporting device within which a vacuum in created and thereafter relieved in a controlled process to flow water to the plant soil at the appropriate rate.
British Application No. 2,095,083 in the name of Fah published in 1982, but subsequently withdrawn, describes a plant container having a double wall and double bottom in which a supply of water is maintained at a controlled level between the device bottoms by a float system and in which a porous wick extends from the water supply to the plant soil.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,071 issued to Fah sets forth a automatic watering and feeding system for plants in which a plant container includes a soil section supporting soil and plants and a reservoir section for accommodating water. A porous wick communicates water from the reservoir to the soil and a pair of floats in communication with the reservoir operate first and second magnetic means which cooperate to maintain the appropriate water level and provide for periodic operation of a food dispenser.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have with varying degree of success attempted to provide environments for plants utilizing and requiring less care and attention, there remains a need in the art for a fully automated reliable and self-sustaining automatic system for plant watering and feeding.